Tomorrow is the big day...

Well, there is little more to be done now except get organized for tomorrow. There isn't time to create anymore masterpieces, it is time to make sure everything is priced, that I have all the needed items for the sale and to look as professional and pulled together as possible. My job for today is to gather everything up that we need for our display tomorrow and to make sure all of my items are tagged and in good shape. Easy peasy.

Yesterday, I started out good in getting organized but got distracted pretty quickly. I organized all of my class notes from the dyeing to design class I am taking and put them all into a binder. I then got distracted by a project that I have been wanting to do all week. It is a pincushion/caddy. So I pulled out the supplies I needed and had it whipped up by lunch time. Here it is.

It turned out to be a lot larger than I thought it would but I really like it. It does require a lot of hand stitching to put it together but it goes together easily and quickly. You can store rotary cutters or scissors in the caddy and you have lots of room for lots of pins and needles. I think I am going to use this one in the living room for when I am stitching bindings on my quilts. I can put the spool of thread in the caddy part with my scissors and everything will stay all neat and tidy.

I hope to see many of my family and friends at the craft sale tomorrow at the Clarks Mills United Methodist Church, it is from 9AM to 3PM. The ladies make really good food for lunch so you can plan on making an event of it all. There are always fantastic vendors selling lots of great hand crafted items.

Have a great day.

The process of a Mystery quilt ...

Yesterday I worked on the Mystery quilt that I started back in January and I am pleased to say that it is no longer an unsolved mystery. It turned out pretty awesome for not knowing what we were making at the time.

I love it when I can use up fabrics from my stash and not have to buy a thing to complete a project. For this mystery, we received directions on fabric requirements and the components to cut them into before we went to the retreat. At the retreat we received several sets of instructions over the course of the weekend with the steps to complete it. I am very pleased with how this turned out and like I said I didn't have to buy anything to finish it up. The quilt was just small enough that I was able to back it with a beautiful butterfly print 45" wide fabric from my stash.

It has all the colors that are in the front of the quilt and I had enough of the dark blue/green batik to bind it in. I used this stencil to mark out the quilting motifs and used bits and pieces from the stencil in the different squares, triangles and the border.

In the other areas I used continuous curve. This was not a super fast quilting job but I enjoyed it and am very pleased with the final product. I think this could be a great baby quilt or table topper.
You can see some more of the motifs in this detail shot of the quilt.

I finished the last stitch in the binding last night while watching a Castle marathon.

Well, today, I am going to go back into my studio and play for a while and maybe even clean it up. I would like to do some fabric dyeing but am not sure yet if that will fit into today's activities.

I hope that you will try to solve some of the mysteries of your projects by breaking them down into doable steps and keep at them till they are done. Have a wonderful day.

Finishing up some UFO's...

UFO's in the quilting world are not Unidentified Flying Objects they are Unfinished Objects. As I was trying to decided what to do yesterday in the studio I pulled out a table runner that I had pieced and even had layered on the batting but had not gone any further. I dug around in my stash and found an appropriated backing fabric for it and loaded it on Lola and quilted it. I usually don't quilt such a small item on the longarm but I was wanting to use Lola and thought I would see how fast quilting a smaller item would go. It was fast and I enjoyed it. I also made one more casserole carrier since I had the metal rings for it. I used a cream with blue print that if it doesn't sell will become mine. The fabric had come from my mom's stash and I really like it. I have enough fabric left over that even if I sell this one I can make another one for myself. I call that a win win. I also pulled out of my stack of UFO's 2 quilt tops. The first one is a mystery quilt that I did at a retreat last January. I did some pre marking and spray basted it together. It is 45" square, now that is a piece I should have put on Lola but I want to get good control and accuracy when quilting this piece so I am doing it on Lilly, my Janome sewing machine. I plan on quilting it today and getting it finished for the sale. The second quilt top is my Christmas Dresden Plate quilt that started out as an online quilt block swap. I have always wanted a scrappy Christmas quilt in the Dresden Plate block so this was the perfect way to get them. I pieced the blocks together at that same retreat last January and I thought I had the perfect backing for it but unfortunately it is just a bit small in its original size. I am toying with some ideas to piece the backing some to get it to be wide enough, it is long enough but just not wide enough. Once I get that figured out I am going to load it on Lola and quilt it. One of the recent online quilting classes I took taught us how to quilt this type of block with templates and I am excited to try it. Besides I need to finish it so I have something Christmasy to put on the couch.

So this is what I will be working on the rest of this week. It feels good to get these UFO's done and out of the way. I feel lighter and more energized as I finish each one. It also opens up the mind to other projects that I want to do once I have this craft show out of the way.

I hope that you have a wonderful day. Lighten your load by finishing up some of your UFO's, those can be any project that you have not finished yet you understand, and if they are something that you know you will never finish pass them on to someone else. It will still lighten your load and it will bless someone else so be blessed and be a blessing.

Finally got those last 2 journal covers done...

Yeah. The last 2 journal covers are done. I got out my scrap bin and pulled out strips and pieces, pressed them and then started putting them all together. I like the idea of the journal covers but until I figure out a better construction method that will afford me the creativity that I want I am not having fun putting these together. I did try adding pockets to the fronts of these last 2 for pens or cell phone. We will see how these sell, I might have to make some more for my sketch books and pencils. Here they are. Totally made from scraps.

So now that I have the journal covers done, what will I make next? I have 4 days before the big craft sale so I have time to make a few more items to sell, but just what should they be? I have been toying with the idea of some more table runners they are quick and easy. I found a tutorial this morning for a pincushion/scissor caddy that could be a lot of fun. (I am thinking of making those for some gifts that I will need though, so I might wait on that idea.) It will come to me when I get to the studio. I am ahead of the game though as I got a customer quilt off the frame yesterday and attached the binding, I just have to do the hand stitching now but I didn't think I would even start it until after the craft sale. Last evening I added the hanging pockets to 2 wallhangings and a label to one of them. So over all I got a lot done in the studio yesterday.

My next big job will be tackling the organization of my office which will begin next week. I think if I work at clearing the paper clutter an hour a day I will get it all organized in a week maybe two. I really dislike the paper work end of business but I know it has to be done so I will bite the bullet and get 'er done. Next week. LOL...

Well, I am off to the studio to get something else done so have a wonderful day.

The trip to be thankful for...

Well, it has been a whirlwind Thanksgiving week/end. I made it safely to and from Virginia and spent a wonderful weekend with Michael, Meghan, Avery and Meghan's parents Karen and Jim. We had lots to celebrate with Thanksgiving and Avery's 3rd birthday that is actually today which we celebrated on Saturday. We had a wonderful very tasty Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings. I only got a picture of the turkey as Jim was carving it but let me tell you it was very good so were all the trimmings.

Here are Michael and Avery sitting on the steps waiting for the meal to be served.

We did go out shopping on Black Friday, Meghan and I found 1 quilt shop and Joanne Fabrics, the other 2 quilt shops that I wanted to go to were no longer in business. Oh well, I found fabric for the baby quilt I have to make for baby Jake at Joannes so that was a win. I even have the quilt pattern idea figured out.

Here are some photos of Avery's birthday party. Her and the cake.

Daddy helping her with one of her presents. Play Dough. Oh what fond memories.

Meghan helping her with another present.

Avery fell head first into the bag as she was trying to get to the bottom to the presents. We had to clear off the table and put her puzzles together. Here is one of them.

She had a great time. The cake was so good and rich along with the ice cream. It was a nice afternoon.

I got home yesterday early evening. It was a long trip but other than one accident that brought traffic to a complete stand still for about 45 minutes (which happened right at a rest stop exit so I was able to get off the highway for a while) things moved along pretty well and traffic was not excruciatingly heavy.

I did stop at this cute little antique shop just outside of Leesburg, I try to stop everytime on my way home, and I found this quilt top that just cried out to me to be mine.

It is a drunkard's path block but I have never seen this pattern layout before. I can't wait to design a beautiful quilting motif to compliment the block design to perfection it also needs a border added to it. It measures about 48" x 72" I haven't actually measured it but I think the blocks are 4" blocks so that's my guestimate.

I am so ready to get back to work on my quilts and get ready for the craft sale that is this week end at the church. I hope to see many of my friends there. Have a great day and I am thankful for each and every one of you. Have a safe first day of hunting season whether you are a hunter or not.